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#technicalwriting

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QUnit

Ever wondered how beforeEach works in unit test frameworks? Check out our new lifecycle diagram!

qunitjs.com/lifecycle/

People generally guess right when it comes to ordering, so why a diagram?

We want to show that the order is guaranteed, and showcase what's possible when you depend on it.

Thanks to FND, Jan, and NullVoxPopuli for improving and promoting this work! H/T @FND @simulo @nullvoxpopuli

Imagine a test with global hooks, and a Parent and Child module that use hooks also. The execution order is: 1. Parent module runs the before hook. 2. Every test in the Parent module inherits context from the before hook, and repeats as follows: call global beforeEach, parent beforeEach, the actual test, parent afterEach, and lastly the global afterEach. 3. The Child module inherits context from the Parent before hook, and then runs its own before hook. 4. Every test in the Child module inherits context from this before hook, and repeats as follows: call global beforeEach, parent beforeEach, child beforeEach, the actual test, child afterEach, parent afterEach, and lastly the global afterEach.
#qunit#WriteTheDocs#TechnicalWriting
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Miguel Afonso Caetano

"Most guides to docs like code, even the ones for non-devs, assume you have some developer knowledge: maybe you're already using version control, or you've encountered build pipelines before, or you're working alongside developers.

This guide is for the people who read that paragraph and wished it came with a glossary. This is docs like code for people who don't know what git is and have never installed VS Code.

This post explains terminology and concepts, to help you get a mental model of what's going on. If you prefer to dive in and pick up concepts as you go, skip straight to the tips in How to learn, and come back to the conceptual info as needed."

deborahwrites.com/blog/docs-li

deborahwrites.comDocs like code in very basic terms - Deborah WritesThis is docs like code for people who don't know what git is and have never installed VS Code.
#TechnicalWriting#SoftwareDocumentation#SoftwareDevelopment
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Dewey Ritten (taylor's version) :donor:

Looking for advice, resources, and textbook recommendations on
technical & professional writing.

I'm tutoring someone with extensive software development expertise who's now looking to improve her technical writing skills. She's also dyslexic, and any resources specific to strategies and pedagogies for adult learners with dyslexia would be appreciated.

It's been a long while since I've taught composition, and I was hoping the #rhetcomp community would have some suggestions. I appreciate your help!

Please feel free to tag anyone who you'd think I could benefit from following, too.

#rhetoricandcomposition
#writingcommunity #writing #writingpedagogy #composition #teaching #writinginstructor #highered #technicalwriting

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Miguel Afonso Caetano

"You can replace tech writers with an LLM, perhaps supervised by engineers, and watch the world burn. Nothing prevents you from doing that. All the temporary gains in efficiency and speed would bring something far worse on their back: the loss of the understanding that turns knowledge into a conversation. Tech writers are interpreters who understand the tech and the humans trying to use it. They’re accountable for their work in ways that machines can’t be.

The future of technical documentation isn’t replacing humans with AI but giving human writers AI-powered tools that augment their capabilities. Let LLMs deal with the tedious work at the margins and keep the humans where they matter most: at the helm of strategy, tending to the architecture, bringing the empathy that turns information into understanding. In the end, docs aren’t just about facts: they’re about trust. And trust is still something only humans can build."

passo.uno/whats-wrong-ai-gener

passo.uno · What's wrong with AI-generated docsIn what is tantamount to a vulgar display of power, social media has been flooded with AI-generated images that mimic the style of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime. Something similar happens daily with tech writing, folks happily throwing context at LLMs and thinking they can vibe write outstanding docs out of them, perhaps even surpassing human writers. Well, it’s time to draw a line. Don’t let AI influencers studioghiblify your work as if it were a matter of processing text.
#AI#GenerativeAI#LLMs
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jmac

I wrote up a tech-writing technique I call the assertions document. It helps you rapidly develop your own understanding of a new-to-you topic by getting your subject-matter experts engaged in the docs project as quickly as possible, and even eager to help you—largely by giving them ways to tell you how you're wrong. #TechWriting #TechnicalWriting fogknife.com/2025-04-04-streng

FogknifeStrengthen your tech writing by trolling your SMEsHow to make your subject-matter experts feel more invested in your work by being wrong and incomplete.
Replied in thread
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Dachary

When we started talking about performing a code example audit, I wondered if we could use an LLM to help us categorize our code examples. I built a quick PoC on a Friday, and we ended up iterating on it to perform the audit.

Spoiler alert: LLM categorization accuracy plunged from 90% to 36.7% using real-world data.

This is part four in an eight-part series about auditing the code examples in our documentation.

dacharycarey.com/2025/03/23/au

#TechnicalWriting
#Documentation
#DeveloperDocs

dacharycarey.comAudit - AI-Assisted Classification | Dachary CareyIn which we have an LLM help us assign categories to code examples.
Replied in thread
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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

@eblu

[scanned cartoon caption reads:] EVEN WHEN THEY'RE TRYING TO COMPENSATE FOR IT, EXPERTS IN ANYTHING WILDLY OVERESTIMATE THE AVERAGE PERSON'S FAMILIARITY WITH THEIR FIELD

I wrote technical manuals a while. Those who write the software are incapable of explaining it to a novice. Indeed, once the writer understands the software, quality goes down, not up as they edit toward concision. This is where training, self-awareness, and outside readers make a difference.

#Software#TechnicalWriting#Writer
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Yvonne Perkins

This article about 'invalidating management styles' really resonates with me as I recently have had a year where any initiative that I showed (and there were many) was met by a manager who said ' that is not what we need' or 'our engineers won't like that' or the other myriad problems he can find with my initiative. The worst response was 'there's too much of you in it' (translation: they don't want me to present, but he can present).

I ended up being out of ideas and miserable. All along I was networking within the organisation and found a secondment with another team. On the 1st morning a depressing weight lifted off my shoulders. I never expect perfection in others, but I love this team and its managers. We even have lunch together at least once a week because we enjoy each other's company .
#TechnicalWriting #WriteTheDocs

theguardian.com/commentisfree/

The Guardian · A manager’s flat response to Gail’s initiative left her deflated. Feeling seen is fundamental to human wellbeingBy Guardian staff reporter
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Phil Davis

I completed a major devportal migration. Yay!

Now I'm doing a lot of git housekeeping, merging and pruning branches. Ugh.

As a git noob, these big changes are all very stressful. Thank goodness I'm the only one working in the repo. Does it ever get any easier?

#git#gitHub#techWriterLife
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Michael Boelen

While I learned a lot on #Twitter, I believe that I #Mastodon is really starting to get some traction. Besides that, I find here more people within my interests. Fortunately some migrated over, such as @jpmens

Someone I didn't know before, was @mahryekuh. Just learned she has a blog about #django #technicalwriting and #webdev. Topics that are relevant to me. Already got distracted and started reading.

So let me share a "thank you" to all that make this platform a better place.

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